slight leak

[price9714]

Okay I have a slight oil leak that appears to be coming from above the skid plate located just aft. of the engine oil pan.
Can I remove that skid plate and look inside without having to dis assemble anything else...like the oil pan .

[Jerry Whitt]

You said "skid plate." I am not familiar with a part on a Corvair with that name.

If you can post a picture, maybe we can help you.

[bbodie52]

I have included an illustrated parts breakdown from the Clark's Corvair Parts online catalog below so that I can reference the item numbers in this discussion. The common areas that leak at the rear of the engine begins with the rear oil seal (46), requiring the removal of the harmonic balancer (43). There is a gasket (58) behind the rear housing (47). A leak could possibly come from the oil pump cover (52). Before you tear into the lower areas to try to locate the source of the leak, you should carefully check the area around the oil filter adaptor (36) to make certain that the leak isn't coming from that area and working its way down, or from the rear of the oil pan. Another common leak area is from the oil cooler (59) seals, but that would be from the left-rear side of the engine.

This video goes a bit beyond the job you need to do. Just fast forward to the 08:30 minute part to skip to the part where you lower the rear portion of the engine and expose the rear engine mount bracket skid plate, and harmonic balancer pulley (unless you just enjoy watching and learning from Dave Motohead!)

The video does not discuss the hydraulic engine jack placement much. If you use a standard hydraulic floor jack you should use plywood and 2x4 or similar lumber to protect the oil pan area and to distribute the load to protect the underside of the engine, and place the jack far enough forward so that the skid plate (49) (mentioned as the "tray of doom" in the video) and other components are not blocked by the floor jack.

Corvair Harmonic Balancer/Oil cooler Replacement.


http://www.corvair.com/user-cgi/catalog.cgi?show_page=9


I have attached a few shop manual pages that may help. If you don't have a shop manual, you can download shop manuals, supplements, and other useful technical manuals in Adobe Reader (.pdf) format at no cost by using the following link...

Common and Useful Corvair Websites

Corvair Forum viewtopic.php?f=225&t=6007

1965 Corvair Chassis Shop Manual, page 6-19

1965 Corvair Chassis Shop Manual, page 6-20

You mentioned in an earlier thread that you are a member of the San Diego CORSA chapter. Perhaps one of the members might have experience in dealing with this type of leak that might help you with the diagnosis before you have to do much disassembly work.

I hope that some of this information helps with your diagnosis and repair effort. Please let us know if you have any questions.

[azdave]

You said "skid plate." I am not familiar with a part on a Corvair with that name.

If you can post a picture, maybe we can help you.

Part #49 in the Clark's catalog illustration above is often referred to as the skid plate and to prove such a name is appropriate they are often found scarred from contact with curbs and bumps in the road.

http://www.californiacorvairparts.com/p ... roduct=616

[64powerglide]

My 64 had lots of oil in the skid plate & most of it was coming from the oil cooler seals, they were hard as rocks.

[bbodie52]

The rear crankshaft seal and the oil cooler seals seem to be the most-common points that leak in the rear engine area. Your comments about oil accumulating in the skid plate area from the oil cooler seals may be a good point. The last portion of the video I posted earlier addresses removal and repair of the oil cooler seals.

[price9714]

the cause of my leak was the oil filter adapter, I ended up ordering and changing the oil filter and all the seals and gaskets and that solved the problem. thanks for all the input .